"The Court Of Owls" or "Bruce Wayne's Brother"

[Seil]

Or, to be more specific, who the crap belongs to the Court Of Owls (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LpVj7WDWMY) and did they actually beat Batman (stupid question, but Bane...) and who is Thomas Wayne Jr.?

What the heck is going on in that new fifty two thing?

[Intern Nin]

Nothing you need concern yourself with. Really, just push it out of your mind and pick up the TMNT/Batman crossover instead.

[Magus]

Or, to be more specific, who the crap belongs to the Court Of Owls (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9LpVj7WDWMY) and did they actually beat Batman (stupid question, but Bane...) and who is Thomas Wayne Jr.?

What the heck is going on in that new fifty two thing?

That movie is an intensely loose adaptation of literally 11 issues of New 52 Batman and 6 issues of New 52 Batman and Robin and 5 issues of New 52 Detective Comics. So it really has very little to do with the New 52 except the basic premise. I liked it, though.

Pre-New 52, Thomas Wayne, Jr. was originally a character from Earth 2, he was the older brother of Bruce Wayne. When Bruce and he and their mother were walking down Crime Alley, after Joe Chill shot the other two, rather than recoiling in horror, he followed Joe Chill and wanted to learn to be a criminal from him because he thought that the only way to avoid being a victim was to be a victimizer. He eventually grew into the supervillain Owlman, a member of the Crime Syndicate (a collective of supervillains who operated in Earth 2 post-Crisis, although pre-Crisis they were from Earth 3 and had actually conquered it. Earth 3 Owlman was never confirmed to be Thomas Wayne, Jr, though).

In the New 52, Thomas Wayne, Jr. is revealed to be a politician named March that Batman had originally been allied with and who he thought had died. March is eventually revealed in the last couple of issues of the Court of Owls and Night of the Owls storyline to be a member of the Court of Owls who wants to take it over, he kills several members of the Court of Owls ruling council. He is revealed to be the illegitimate child of Thomas Wayne and wants to supplant Bruce. He reveals he is the supervillain Owlman and puts on a robotic Owlman suit to attack Batman with. Batamn eventually defeats him and he is presumed dead...although of course he will probably be back at some point. Bruce also expresses doubt as to whether he actually was Thomas Wayne, Jr. and whether such a person really existed.

In the film "Batman vs. Robin", the character of NoBody from issues 1-6 of "Batman and Robin" is amalgamated with a character from "Batman" called Talon, who is an assassin for the Court of Owls. There are actually a ton of "Talons" who serve as the Court of Owls enforcers, but there is a particular one who has gone on to get their own comic book. Of course, the character in the movie has little to do with this character from the comic books, and instead kind of stands-in for Thomas Wayne, Jr. who is not in this movie. But as mentioned he also stands-in for the character NoBody from "Batman and Robin" who attempted to turn Damian to the "dark side" so to speak and become a vigilante who kills criminals. It's revealed that NoBody is Morgan Ducard, Henri Ducard's son, and he wants revenge of Bruce Wayne/Batman for humiliating him years before and getting him sent to prison.

The connection to "Detective Comics" is in the character of the Dollmaker who was the main villain for the first arc of New 52 Detective Comics. This movie has little to do with him, though, other than to have his death be the initial thing that starts causing a rift between Batman and Damian as seen in "Batman vs. Robin". The movie also leaves out him cutting off Joker's face. I suppose if they ever adapt "Death of the Family" to a film they will just have him cut off his own face or something.

As for whether the Court of Owls really "beat" Batman, they had him trapped in an underground maze where he was slowly going insane from hunger and thirst (he refuses to drink from the fountain because it has drugs in it). For some reason the movie cuts out the part where he escapes from them, though. It just kind of implies that they let him go? It was very odd. In the comic book he attacks a couple of members who come to mock him and then he escapes through an underground river that fed a fountain in the maze .

[Bard The 5th LW]

stuff

What the fuck even is DC Comics anymore holy shit.

[Token]

You're missing a bit.

March came back a couple of years ago as the mastermind in Batman Eternal, and was recently featured in Robin War, a mini-event in which the Court of Owls pitted the vigilante Robin gang against the... vigilante Robin heroes, I guess? also the police.

Their main goal, apart from consolidating power, is to turn Dick Grayson into their lead "Talon," which are a group of basically cryogenically frozen immortal soldiers. Because this was early New 52, and all of the Robins need to have super secret and special backstories, Dick is the end result of a long and extensive IV breeding program, and is, god help us all, the Gray Son of Gotham. (Because this wasn't dumb enough, they're trying to imply he took the name "Nightwing" because owls have wings and they flap at night and THAT'S why he imprinted on Superman's bedtime story.)

Yeah.

Obviously, he didn't go evil or anything, but has recently (like two issues ago) agreed to take the mantle of the Gray Son, partly to end the Robin War without Damian having to take the role, and partly as part of his super secret spy bullshit.

Comics!

[Kyanbu The Legend]

Well, that was one hell of a rollercoaster ride, wow... Ok DC I'm not quite sure about this arc. I really liked the idea of the Court of Owls among other things but this seems like it got really silly really quick.

[Token]

Not really any sillier than comics have ever been. Honestly, it's all been pretty entertaining.

[Kyanbu The Legend]

Ah I see, that's good to hear.

[Seil]

I can't be so quick to judge - World War Hulk was all about The Illuminati (Reed Richards, Tony Stark, Namor, Charles Xavier, and Black Bolt) tricking the Hulk into boarding a rocket where they intended on launching him to a peaceful planet, but instead he ended up on Skaar. He then overthrew the evil Red King, took his body guard as his wife and ruled over its people until the rocket exploded and killed nearly everyone, including his wife and child. (His kids survived, came back later.)

So Hulk went back to the moon, and beat up Black Bolt (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gKxHieK6B8). Then he defeated every X-Team, the Fantastic Four (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fdrtg4YtVvQ), Iron Man, Ghost Rider (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIcRnyMLj5I) (who ended up refusing to attack Hulk because of the sins of the Illuminati) Doctor Strange, Doctor Strange possessed by Zom (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wf_eKCCcNgc), and pretty much everyone ever (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBSAw12fkXs), including Sentry (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mKYkMRG4mj8).

He also asked that New York be evacuated before he came to Earth because shit was about to get real.

...So yeah, comics silly.

---------- Post added at 02:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:14 PM ----------

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[mauve]

...soooo what you're all saying is that comics are soap operas disguised by a shiny veneer of spandex and laser vision.

[Seil]

Which would make most soap operas infinitely better, admit it.

[mauve]

This is entirely true.

[Seil]

Though it is a fair question - what's the silliest that comics have ever gotten? The time The Ultimate Warrior beats up Santa? Or the time Peter Parker kills Mary Jane with his radioactive spider-semen?

[Token]

Well, I mean, that really depends on your definition of silly.

My default answer would probably be Adam X the X-Treme (http://marvel.wikia.com/wiki/Adam_Neramani_(Earth-616)), but there are also the entire goddamn golden and silver ages. I mean damn.

That said, for a kind of silly that will eventually make you cry, there's the Justice League International.

[Bum Bill Bee]

Though it is a fair question - what's the silliest that comics have ever gotten? The time The Ultimate Warrior beats up Santa? Or the time Peter Parker kills Mary Jane with his radioactive spider-semen?

Next Wave: Agents of Hate. Its the silliest, and delightfully so!

[Magus]

Though it is a fair question - what's the silliest that comics have ever gotten? The time The Ultimate Warrior beats up Santa? Or the time Peter Parker kills Mary Jane with his radioactive spider-semen?

Archie Meets the Punisher